In the spirit of the new year, or maybe to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the publication of "Megatrends," I was wondering what you all see as the next major megatrends in the world. I don't remember what the original definition was but I'm talking about major trends in the world that will play out over the next 10-25 years.

No more production jobs moving to the BRIC countriesRising labor costs and increased transportation costs limit the movement of jobs to low wages countries. It'll gain too little and getting products shipped in will costs too much.

Severe limitation to press freedomThere's a very clear trend that press freedom and freedom of speach are suffering in what we see as free countries. I expect countries all over the world to write up legislation to allow more censorship. If you look at Hungary in Europe for example there's been a bill passed last December which gives control to the government to forbid all sorts of TV and media broadcasts. But the same is happening in other countries.

Increased political undecisivenessI love the concept of democracy, I very much dislike how it functions at the moment. Politicians are too concerned with the public opinion as to get reelected, and less with actually making good long term decisions. Due to technical changes the amount of good choices being made will be significantly reduced as we get closer to an actual democracy. There are too many people that voice an opinion on matters they do not know anything about. Listening to the majority does not work if the majority is unable to make an informed decision. Just look at savings. The majority does not want the government to make more debts, then again, the majority also wants to pay less. And the majority is stupid. (That includes me.)

1984I'm very sure that big brother is watching is a lot closer than today. If you look at all the possibilities to keep check on people, and how fast computers are getting beter. It'll be too easy for a government to watch everyone, a lot of the time. Compared to 20 years ago there is so much less privacy. Without problems the government can track you through your cellphone, companies like google and facebook know almost everything about your. Camera's track your whereabouts, and it's just a matter of time until there's a tracker in every car to ensure you don't break the speedlimit. It sounds scary, but I'm sure 9 out of 10 people will not care about this 20 years from now, just like most people don't care now.

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